“I’m not!” she retorted, brought somewhat to herself by his manner of speaking. “But isn’t the boat gone?”
“Of course it is,” he admitted, “and it may be that Nat is in it. But that’s a long way from saying she is drowned. Nat knows how to manage a boat.”
“Then why doesn’t she come home?” asked Alice.
“There you go!” cried her brother. “You girls are all alike—bound to look on the dark side.”
“Well,” tearfully protested Alice, “can you show us a bright side?”
“Of course!” exclaimed Blake. “She may have met some friends, and gone to supper with them. They may have picked her up in their launch.”
“But Natalie wouldn’t go without sending some word to us,” objected Mrs. Bonnell.
“Maybe she did send word, and the person forgot to bring it,” said Jack. “I’ve had that happen to me lots of times. She’ll be found all right, you see.”
“Oh, of course I don’t believe anything serious could happen to her,” said Mrs. Bonnell, “only—well, it is getting late,” and she looked across the dark lake, and a little shiver of nervous fear made her tremble.
“Besides, Natalie doesn’t know any one up here who has a launch, and with whom she would go to supper,” went on Mabel.
“Now, it’s your turn to throw cold water,” objected her brother. “How do you know whom Nat might have met since she’s been up here? You girls aren’t always together, and she may have met some young fellow, and not wanted to tell you about him,” and he looked over at Blake, and nudged Phil.
“That’s right,” chimed in the latter.
“Oh, nonsense!” exclaimed his sister. “Natalie wouldn’t do such a thing as that. Oh, but what can we do?”
“Hadn’t we better notify some one—some of the constables2—and have him get up a searching party?”
“Say, those constables aren’t worth their salt,” declared Jack. “They couldn’t find a lost cow, let alone a pretty girl. Why, they couldn’t even find the Gypsy camp, and that was plain enough after you girls got on the trail. The constables are no good!”
“Then what can we do?” asked Mabel. “We must do something to find her. It’s awful to stand around this way and do nothing!” and she stamped her foot in troubled vexation.
“I’ll get those young fellows at the other camp,” said Phil. “Then we’ll start some of them out in the boat, and the rest of us will search through the woods again.”
“I guess that plan is as good as any,” agreed Mrs. Bonnell. “Poor Natalie! I wonder what possessed3 her to go off by herself?”
“Maybe she got some clue to the lost Gypsy girl?” suggested Jack.
“Oh, you boys!” exclaimed the Guardian4. “You are always thinking of clues and trails! Be reasonable.”
“Well, Nat had some good cause for going off, I’ll say that much,” declared Phil, and Blake nodded in assent5.
“Go get those other fellows,” suggested Jack. “I’ll bail6 out a boat, one of ours has sprung a leak.”
“Why not take the launch?” asked Blake.
“Something’s the matter with the carburetor again,” replied Jack. “They might get stuck out in the middle of the lake.”
“That’s a peach of a boat!” murmured Blake. “If we come up here again next year we’ll have our own. This one is out of order half the time. The fellow who hired it to us ought to give us a rebate7.”
“If we don’t find that missing canoe of his he’ll take so much of our money that we’ll have to walk home,” added Phil.
“Well, we’ll have a good search in the morning,” said Jack. “Now then, let’s get busy after Natalie.”
While the girls stood about, well-nigh distracted, and not knowing what to do, save to talk in shivery whispers, and to speculate on what might have happened to their Camp Fire chum, Phil hurried off to where the other boys had their tent. He was soon heard returning with them.
They readily agreed to join in the search, and some of them prepared to set off in one of the larger rowboats, with Phil, while the others got more lanterns and prepared for another tramp through the woods.
The boat was just about to be pushed off from the little improvised8 dock, when the sound of oars9 out on the lake was heard, the echo coming distinctly over the water, and through the still darkness.
“Hark!” exclaimed Mabel.
“Some one is coming,” added Marie.
“Maybe with—news,” faltered10 Alice.
Then came a hail.
“Wo-he-lo! Dogwood!”
“It’s Natalie!” chorused her chums, while Blake raised his voice in a gladsome shout:
“Natalie! Where have you been? Are you all right?”
“All right, yes, of course. Reuben is bringing me home.”
“Reuben?” Blake questioned quickly.
“That’s the milk-and-farm boy,” said Alice in a low voice.
“Oh, yes.”
“Hurry, Natalie!” called Mrs. Bonnell. “What happened to you? What kept you? Where were you? We were just going in search of you.”
“I’m all right,” answered the voice from out in the darkness, and then the rescuers could see a faint glimmer11 of light in a moving boat. “I sprained12 my ankle, and I couldn’t walk. Reuben came along and found me, and brought me home in his boat. We’ll be there in a minute.”
“Busted part of the blade off one of my oars,” explained the country lad. “That’s why it took us so long. The boat wouldn’t go straight.”
The boys and girls crowded down to the edge of the water and waited anxiously. Now they could discern the approaching boat more clearly. In a little while it grated on the pebbles13 of the beach, and by the light of the lanterns with which the second searching party had been about to start out, they could see the missing girl resting on some blankets in the bottom of the craft.
“Oh, Natalie!” cried Mrs. Bonnell. “We’ve been so worried about you!”
“I know it, dear Guardie, but I couldn’t help it. I fell and sprained my ankle.”
“Where?”
“In the haunted mill.”
“The haunted mill!” cried Alice. “Were you there, Natalie Fuller?”
“I was. Oh, Blake, my dear, don’t try to lift me out until I straighten my foot! Oh!” and she shrank back with pain, for Blake had gotten into the boat and was endeavoring to lift her out.
“Give me a hand here, you fellows,” he ordered somewhat roughly, but they knew how he felt.
“No, no, Blake, really!” begged Natalie after a moment. “If you wait I can get up by myself, and then, if you let me lean on your shoulder I can manage to hobble to the tent, I think. It isn’t so bad, really.”
He watched her carefully as she got in position. Then as she bore a slight weight on the sprained ankle he saw her sway. The next moment he had caught her in his arms.
“She’s fainted!” he exclaimed. “I’ll carry her up to the tent,” and he took her out on shore and hurried toward the canvas shelter.
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1
jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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2
constables
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| n.警察( constable的名词复数 ) | |
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3
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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4
guardian
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| n.监护人；守卫者，保护者 | |
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assent
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| v.批准，认可；n.批准，认可 | |
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6
bail
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| v.舀（水），保释；n.保证金，保释，保释人 | |
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rebate
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| v./n.折扣，回扣，退款；vt.给...回扣，给...打折扣 | |
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8
improvised
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| a.即席而作的,即兴的 | |
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9
oars
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| n.桨，橹( oar的名词复数 )；划手v.划（行）( oar的第三人称单数 ) | |
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10
faltered
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| （嗓音）颤抖( falter的过去式和过去分词 )； 支吾其词； 蹒跚； 摇晃 | |
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11
glimmer
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| v.发出闪烁的微光；n.微光，微弱的闪光 | |
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12
sprained
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| v.&n. 扭伤 | |
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pebbles
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| [复数]鹅卵石； 沙砾； 卵石，小圆石( pebble的名词复数 ) | |
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